Teacup Browsing

• Apologies.  I really need to attend to my spellcheck/predictor and editing errors.  Sorry.  In the meantime...

• Happy fathers' day and Frs. Day and more for Trinity Sunday.

• Sundays with Jimmy (a horrible president but an honorable man).

• Word of the day used in a sentence:  "I've know a couple of theological zedonks in my day; some would say that I'm one of them."

• Speaking of ex-presidents, here's wheelchair-bound George senior at 90.

• WC Dashboard. (See what I'm sayin'? Automatically, big-brother capitalized against my libertarian --not the political kind--and arminian free-will proclivities).   What's next, NSA?

• GOP branding and rebranding and political polarization.

• El Niño (good for spellcheck it added the enye) La Niña  and the Santa Maria,

• Rolheiser (I'm an obvious fan) on prayer.

•   Pope Francis to soccer fans:  "Sport is not only a form of entertainment, but also a tool to communicate the values ​​that promote the good of the human person and help to build a more peaceful and fraternal coexistence."

• I've lived in several states and I've found that, for different reasons, Texas, Florida and Louisiana (the states I love most) are the most unique.  Take for example the reparative therapy plank of the Texas Republican Party and governor Rick Perry's take on homosexuality.  I don't usually write or comment on pelvic issues but I've been acquainted with people who have been severely damaged by voodoo science.  

• I've never lived in Oklahoma where one tea parties has another solution.

• How to talk about theology.

• A view from above (it's all about perspective). 

• Union seminary students and professors may be walking to work and school in the fall.

• Er...good question.

• Quote of the week: "The danger is to choose existence rather than life. Every field, every discipline, every domain where humans work, play, and live, is a canvas for imagination, creativity, and beauty."  - Erwin McManus, author of The Artisan Soul.

• This reminds me of living in Lubbock ...

• 
  though I'm Austin-bound in a few weeks...
  
  

• Better with a gun and a kind word that just a kind word alone?
  
  
  
  

Trinity Sunday: Celebrity God Swap

Trinity Sunday, June 15, 2014

1. Every now and again as I'm channel-surfing I come across the program, Celebrity Wife Swap.  Although I've never actually watched the show I get the concept.  In the program, two families, usually from different social classes and lifestyles, swap wives/mothers – and sometimes husbands – for two weeks.  They live, quite out of context, within the familial relationship of a strange, that is, unknown family, as though they were always a part of it.  

   
   

   That got me to thinking, imagine if we could insert ourselves in the life of the Holy Trinity to experience the perfect love, fellowship, union and communion between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  That would indeed, be, to quote Thomas Aquinas, a foretaste of the glory to come.  How would we experience, for example, the human love between husband and wife, of parent and child, or the love of Christian community (church) after having sat in on that experience for a while?

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   Truth be told, we don't have to wait for some future date or experience.  The reality of the Trinity is not some just "out there" concept.  The idea of the Trinity is merely a cold, antiseptic theorem unless we understand the truth of what the Trinity means, personally, that is to say, for every Christian person:  that we are taken into the very life and relationship of the Three, and that adoption into the Godhead affects and instructs our everyday dealings in the world.

   
   

   In Celebrity Wife Swap, the participant are taken out of there own contexts and put into a strange one.  For Christians, participation in the divine life of the Trinity (and sharing that divine life with others) is our proper and natural context.  In Celebrity Wife Swap the participants are taken out of their ethnic or socioeconomic location.  In the Christian life, participation in the divine life of the Trinity is our most proper location;  anything else is of necessity, alien.

   
   

   “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (that’s the Son) and the love of God (the Father) and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (the third Person) be with you"  "for by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature."  2 Peter 1:4

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

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Things We Do, See and Say at Church: Meditations for a Eucharist Based: Light

 These meditations are intended for before, during or after the celebration of Holy Eucharist and are meant to enhance and deepen our participation in the liturgy through prayerful and mindful reflection on various aspects of the worship experience. 

Candles

Usually as we enter the church, perhaps in the narthex, or transcept, but most definitely on or about the altar is light, usually in the form of candles.  Some churches offer the opportunity of lighting a votive candle usually near the back of the church most often in symbolic conjunction with one or more prayer intentions.  While the original use of candles and sometimes torches was partially utilitarian (there was no electricity), the primary purpose of candles and other natural light sources was spiritual symbol.  Eusebius of  Caesaria records that during the paschal vigil such a quantity of candles were lit by the faithful that the night itself became as day. 

Candles, often taken for granted, importantly represent, most especially the light of Christ.  "Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.'" (John 8:12). From the earliest days of Christianity the most important candle was the pascal candle derived from the Lucernarium, the evening office with which early Christians began the vigil for every Sunday and especially that of Easter.  In the 2nd Century, Tertullian wrote: "We never hold a service without candles, yet we use them not just to dispel night's gloom we also hold our services in daylight but in order to represent by this Christ, the Uncreated Light, without Worn we would in broad daylight wander as if lost in darkness [Works, 3rd ed., Kiev, 1915, p.76].

Besides representing the light of Christ which illumines our hearts and minds--especially in the practice of worship--the burning candle represents the entire life of the communion of the faithful, from birth to death and then life beyond in the communion of saints.  It both stands for the inner flame of love for and devotion to God and the love-unity of his people in communion with him and one another.  Moreover, the pure wax of the candle may, as Simeon of Thessalonica noted, symbolize purity and chastity, both imputed and desired, of those who offer it.

The smoke which arises from the candle, as with liturgical incense, represents the prayer of the people of God.  As the Psalmist prays:  "Let my prayer rise as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" we too can use liturgical candles as a symbol of our prayers of praise, thanksgiving and petition.

So as we attend and participate in the Eucharistic liturgy, let us not miss the opportunities to use candles as sacramentals to enhance the beauty of the liturgy and as symbols of both our faith and practice as individuals and communal members of the family of God.

For reflection:

1.  How might lighting a candle at church or at home, or even at the office, enhance my spiritual communion?

2.  As I gaze on the symbolic, lit candle, how is Christ present as light in my life and in the communion  of Eucharistic worshippers?  In my family?  In my profession?  In my ministry?

3.  How is the purity of the burning candle reflective of my own striving for holiness?

4.  How do altar candles help me appreciate the reality of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist?  In my daily living?

5.  Might lighting a candle during my private, prayer practice enhance communion with God?



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..and....

Irrational Faith

Daily Meditation for Friday June 13, 2014

John 1:43-46

"The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”Nathanael asked."

__________________________

"Can anything good come from there."

It seems like racism and all kinds of prejudice are on the rise.  The victory of overtly racist parties in the European Union, racial slurs from basketball team owners and celebrity chefs.  Race-based mass killings by white supremacists and anti-Semites.  The fact that judgmental prejudice and outright racism is alive and well in our culture is evident from a mere scanning of the daily paper.  Jesus was no stranger to that.

Nathaniel exhibits one of the first ethic prejudices in the New Testament.  Nazareth was not only a poor little place, (for so Bethlehem also was), but a place which the Scripture never mentioned as the place from whence the Messiah should arise; a place that God had not honoured with the production of a prophet. It was a place of no account.  The other side of the tracks.  If Jesus came from such a non-descript, no account place, can he, his family, his message be of any value?  

Rightly did Herbert Spencer proclaim that,  “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”

But we often do engage in "contempt prior to investigation."  Against people of other religious traditions; against people who are divorced and remarried.  Against persons of a different political party.  Against those who have experienced the horror of a terminated pregnancy.  Against those with same sex attraction or who are a different, color, race or creed.  Against those who like Jesus who are from "the other side of the tracks."

What is your prejudice?  Who is different from you that you are judging?  Can you get to empathically know them long enough to walk a mile in their shoes?



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Know someone this post would bless?

Teacup Browsing

• Here's what's not on a (nurse) deacon's job description. Or a doctor's.

• The continuing capitalism debate.  While unfettered, impersonal capitalism does create injustice and economic inequality, do we really want to get rid of the baby with the bathwater? John Dilulio weighs in.

• The guy who toppled the House Majority Leader.

• The beginning of the end for PCs.

•  But $2.5 billion for a game?

• ... and American hunger games.

• Rolheiser on Acedia.

• On my reading list.

• Code-breaking that could save you money.

• What to do with time on your hands.

• Denzel's good advice.

• I'm guilty of one of these but only in the morning.

• Assalamu alaikum in Rome.

• More on married priests.  (And more)  An issue that seems to go beyond custom and church discipline (it is not a matter of dogma) but rather, increasingly a matter of necessity.  In Ireland, the "Eucharistic famine" due the shortage of priests has Irish priests calling for married clergy and the ordaining women.

• An honest Christian hero at SPU:  “I would encourage that hate be met with love. When I came face to face with the attacker, God gave me the eyes to see that he was not a faceless monster, but a very sad and troubled young man. While I cannot at this time find it within me to forgive his crime, I truly desire that he will find the grace of God and the forgiveness of our community.

• Baptists meet; discuss, inter alia, problems and their changing face.

• Episcopal amnesia and ignorance is no defense.  "Anderson went on to ask Carlson whether he knew in 1984, when he was an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, that it was a crime for a priest to engage in sex with a child.  "I’m not sure if I did or didn’t,” Carlson said."  Really?  That explains a lot.
  
  

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Things We Do, See and Say at Church: Meditations for a Eucharist Based Spirituality: Water

In Roman Catholic, Anglican/Episcopal, Orthodox, Lutheran and increasingly other mainline Protestant churches, one of the first things encountered at the entrance of the sanctuary is a holy water or baptismal font.

Water is a basic symbol of life as well as a means of cleansing, or purification, and is of particular importance in the Old Testament. It was created on the first day and and is the major symbol of regeneration and incorporation into the family of God through baptism.  As the author of the fourth century, Exposito Fidei (Exposition of Faith; probably St. Athanasius) says:

Water, then, is the most beautiful element and rich in usefulness, and purifies from all filth, and not only of the body but from that of the soul, if it should have received the grace of the Spirit (23:58-60)

 From the beginning of the Bible to the end water, which is mentioned 722 times, flows through the pages of scripture. Scripture is full of passages that link water to Gods creating, blessing and saving work. This alone shows the importance of water in our spiritual lives.  As the sacrament of baptism is a first step of a lifelong journey of commitment and discipleship, water reminds us of our continuing commitment to conversion.

 The encounter with water as we we enter the Church for worship and reception of then holy Eucharist presents a perfect opportunity for an examination of conscience, a prayer for forgiveness of any conscious sin and for a renewal of our baptismal promises, rejecting and renouncing anything and everything that impedes the flow of God's grace in our lives and embracing the commandments to love God and others above all else.

When we cross ourselves with blessed water we are affirming something as surely as we do when we say Amen at the end of a prayer.  We affirm that we belong, body, mind and spirit to God and we re-consecrate ourselves to God in an intentional way as we prepare to receive him in the Holy Eucharist.

Prayer

We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water.
Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation.
Through it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage
in Egypt into the land of promise. In it your Son Jesus
received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy
Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us, through his death
and resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life.
We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are
buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his
resurrection and through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.

The Rule of St. Benedict: Prologue Pt. IV

And the Lord, seeking his laborer
in the multitude to whom He thus cries out,
says again,
"Who is the one who will have life,
and desires to see good days" (Ps. 33:13)?
And if, hearing Him, you answer,
"I am the one,"
God says to you,
"If you will have true and everlasting life,
keep your tongue from evil
and your lips that they speak no guile.
Turn away from evil and do good;
seek after peace and pursue it" (Ps. 33:14-15).
And when you have done these things,
My eyes shall be upon you
and My ears open to your prayers;
and before you call upon Me,
I will say to you,
'Behold, here I am'" (Ps. 33:16; Is. 65:24; 58:9).

What can be sweeter to us, dear ones,
than this voice of the Lord inviting us?
Behold, in His loving kindness
the Lord shows us the way of life.

REFLECTION

The tenderness of St. Benedict, as well as his tender image of God,
is evident all through this portion, harking back to his fatherly
affection at the beginning of the Prologue. The intensity, the
sweetness of the last lines today is so great that it borders on too
much. This must be St. Benedict at his all but gushingly most
sincere, and that is a good time to listen with extra care to him,
since he doesn't just gush on every other page!

In the midst of all this sweetness, look at the question he puts in
the Lord's mouth: "Who is the one who will have life and desires to
see good days?" Granted, it is a quote from the Psalms, but St.
Benedict could have used something else, or written his own, or
employed a rhetorical question. He didn't, though, he used this one
and that is most fortunate.

He does not have God in the teeming marketplace hollering out: "Who
wants to be a monk? Who wants to be a nun? Who wants to be an
Oblate?" (Chuckle: if God DID call out "Who wants to be an Oblate?",
how many people you know would yell back: "What's an Oblate??") No
doubt, for some on the monastic way, those may have been the first
questions. For many others, it was not nearly that direct.

This question allows us to ponder (if God and you will pardon the
phrase,) the Divine sneakiness. How many of the stories we hear of
how people came to the monastic way and were drawn to the Benedictine
life give witness to God's loving "sneakiness." God cannot lie and
His query here is not a lie, but He can certainly CHOOSE the truth He
uses to draw us. Like any parent of a stubborn child, He knows that
some approaches work better than others.

There is a lot more than sneakiness in this question, however. How
many times, when speaking of monastic life, or married life, or any
vocation, do we stress its harsher aspects? To some extent, monastic
life and married life get the brunt of this: "Oh, it isn't easy,
blah, blah, blah...It's no cinch, there's a lot of hardship." OK,
there is, no problem there, but there is also a lot of sweetness if
any vocation is done right.

How many people would have gotten married if the proposal included a
litany of night-feedings and diaper pails, much less if the proposal
could have announced the birth of a severely handicapped child or the
paralysis of the spouse or the tragedy of an auto accident far in the
future? We do both marriage and monastic life a great harm when we
emphasize only the difficult things.

There IS joy in marriage, great joy, and there is in the monastic
way, too. Just like any good proposal, God asks us to respond to the
good things He is offering and they are not slight!

By the way, a traditional joke used when a monastic is writing his or her
profession chart is to tell the person to leave a lot of space between the
lines: so God can add things later!! He has a way of doing that, with or
without the spaces between the lines!!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA